Large Forum Review
First Impressions
Well, upon simply reading your forums name in the address I though, “Hmm, a graphics forum, I’ll be greeted with a nice and colourful theme”, however I was not. I was greeted by your “Visual FX Blue” theme, which quite frankly turned me off before I started. If I hadn’t have noticed the theme change button near the bottom, I would’ve left in all honestly. A graphics forum with a theme like that is just bad in my eyes.
You would have been saved however if I was greeted by your Visual FX Orange theme which is a stunner of a theme. Maybe you should make this theme the default one, as it is more inviting and colourful than the other. Other than the themes though, everything appears to flow nicely on the forum. As a first time viewer, I can see a fair amount of boards, all with a decent amount of topics for me to post around in. I would usually make a comment about those adverts you have atop and at the bottom of your page but due to Zetaboard’s pay to remove advert thing, I will not discredit you for it on this occasion. Although, they are easily removed from view with a simple ad-blocker.
As a first time viewer though, I must say that I like the amount of boards/sections you have. It isn’t too intimidating for a newbie yet it is rather small, quaint and welcoming.
Despite the theme issue, which I raised, I had a fairly decent first impression although as I said, I would run away with that theme if I was greeted with it.
(Score: 10/15)
Appearance
Due to the fact you have four themes, I reviewed this area mainly on the first theme I was greeted with, this is the VisualFX Blue although I will mention your other themes
Right, onto your themes now. I have already voiced my displeasure with the default theme and there are several reasons why in my books. Firstly, you are a graphics forum. Where is the colour? My view on graphics is all about expression, colour and attention o detail. I don’t see much of that on this theme.
Your logo doesn’t scream out to me “We are a graphics forum!” it just says, bit of text, opaque image behind, job done. From what I have seen, Ki, the graphics mod here is a part of your forum displayed by here (
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=83231) so I’m sure you don’t have any lack of talent at your disposal. I’ve seen some great work from Kik, so where’s’ the awesome, colourful and pretty logo? I’d like to see a different logo, that’s clear anyway! Your current one is just to bland and plain for my personal likings.
On the topic of the logo, I do not believe it also encapsulates what your forum is about. Sure, the eye represents the “Visual” in the name although the eye is not visible all that much but the rest of it, doesn’t do much. Maybe if you have a new logo, you could add PS/GIMP logos into the mix, maybe a brush and art pad. You get the idea. Just to give potential users an idea if they don’t already have one and of course, to make people remember your logo.
My next port of call was to look through your sections, see how the posts look, the schemes and how (and if) it is distinguishable from one post to the next, one thread to the next and the like. I stumbled upon this. (
http://gyazo.com/f9cca45d35b5221d7ea125 ... 1327340220) Now, obviously you could argue any amateur forum goer could distinguish one post from the next due t the report, quote buttons that you have but for people like myself, I love to have a little divider line in-between posts which totally distinguish the break between one post from the next. You may want to consider this.
Other than that though, it is easy to distinguish between different threads on the listings and the text is easily readable which is always a big plus. Although, on a personal basis, the board descriptions are a tad small but that is just from my view.
Now, I said I’d talk about your other themes and I shall. So, I moved onto the next one down on the list and I can critique that the same as the first one except it is a much worse colour than the first. Then I was greeted with the lovely VisualFX Orange theme, which quite honestly, Is a perfect representation for your forum in a niche (graphics) point of view. Easy on the eyes, a good mix of colours, light and perfectly set out. Your logo is plain in this one as well but it’s 10x better than the other one (Although, still missing a link to the forums niche other than the name). I don’t see why this isn’t default or if it is, I just got the luck of the draw when I first logged in. I did however, notice this on said theme (
http://gyazo.com/c3a5ca5df235ffe33c8d82fcfeac725e) Now, that is not a problem to myself, with a 27” screen but when I resized the window as I review side-by-side with Word open, the menu crawled over into the logo area. This may be a problem for people with smaller screens.
VisualFX Yellow is another lovely theme, great mix of colors and again, easy on the eye. I noticed on this theme and the Orange one, you have clearly signed breaks in-between the posts so, why not use this on other themes? They work and look lovely, I’d say implement them! Same comments on the logo though. Also on this yellow theme, the menu looks very odd to myself regardless of the way I have my window open. (see the picture here -
http://gyazo.com/b6f3b9c08f606de1bdad50 ... 1327340570)
(Score: 13/20)
Statistics and Activity
You said in your review application, you started on the 6th January this year. Myself and Tindris found evidence you did not. This section has been changed to include this
As I said above, we found you did not start on the date specified. I found posts by you dating back to mid-December and of course, your join date on the forum itself is December 14th, so this section will be taken from that date.
So, as I view your forum currently, you have
4,073 posts and
65 members. Considering your started your forum in mid-December, that is a very good set of stats to have and for that, I commend you. That is actually, one of the best set of stats I have seen a in a relatively new forum for a very long time. Maybe you should let people in on your secret?
So, you’ve been going for around a month and 9-10 days. I’ll average that down too 1 month and a week for calculation purposes. So, by my calculations you are averaging
110 posts per day, which is extraordinary for a forum of your age but that involves staff count. So what happens if we take the current staff’s posts out of the equation? The staff at VisualGFX have made 2361 posts between them at my count which means that after excluding them from the forum total posts your members are making
46 posts per day which is still brilliant. Although, I am not slating your staff for posting at lot. At this age that is integral to the well-being of your forum and I am ecstatic that your staff are doing very well at integrating and being a part of the forum instead of some higher-power sitting on a chair stroking a cat with an evil grin.
What strikes me though, after looking down your board list, is that just over 25% of your forums posts come in the general sections. Whilst that doesn’t surprise me, It always manages to sadden me a little. Whilst your graphical areas are active and have their fair amount of threads/posts for your members, there must be a reason they all flock to the general section every now and then. Whilst have a 75% rate of posting within your niche sections, when ¼ of the posts spill into non-niche areas, I tend to worry. I’d prefer to see something like 15% although, you are still at a good percentile, I am just saying keep an eye on it, you don’t want members going overboard in your non-niche areas.
(Score: 19/20)
Ratios
Ratios covers your boards, their layouts and the number of them. Looking at your forum, I can see no problem at all with the layout and the number of your boards.
You have 14 boards (Excluding sub-boards) within 4 sections. For a forum of your size, that is a decent amount of boards for your users to post within. They are properly attributed to the right sections; I envisage no problems with users getting confused as to why the boards are where they are.
There is more than enough staff to moderate your boards and looking around, I can see that they are doing that quite well. Good job here.
(Score: 10/10)
Content
So, for this section I was looking over your announcements, rules and other related ‘official’ documents that I could find. From what I can see, they are all very well written, I don’t see much in the way of grammatical errors although I did find something which I noticed in your rules thread.
Here at VisualFX we want to keep the community clean, and just a fun environment.
I don’t see why it says “and just a fun environment”. In my mind, it should say “and to maintain a fun a environment for everyone” or something along those lines.
Moving onto your board descriptions, I again see no problem with them. They seem very well written grammatically and linguistically. I have no recommendations to make in this area.
(Score:19/20)
Navigation
I found it quite easy to access your search function, your staff list (Love the staff list page by the way) and your default FAQ pages but if I were a new member and saw all that atop the page I would think “Where is the rules?”. Whilst they are sticked within your announcements section, you may want to consider adding a page for them next to “FAQ” or something. I have seen this done on other ZB forums so I wouldn’t think it is a problem.
I like how I can click on a user group and see who is in that group which in unlike what I have encountered on other forums hosted by ZB. This makes life a lot easier for those who fail to see the relatively small “Administrator and Moderator list” at the bottom.
Overall though, I had no problems navigating your site although as a new member, they may appreciate a page atop the forum for the Rules area though.
(Score: 14/15)
Total Score
85/100
Final Remarks
A forum with very good stats for a new forum and an obviously dedicated staff team. Has the potential to go far but logo and default theme issues need to be attended to. Over all, a good forum. I hope you go far.
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